It is a novel inspired by a documented history. Lucy Beasley was a real widow whose land and nine children appear in the records. The papers also document the 1857 court sale and the people her family enslaved. David Jacobs invented the novel's central character Mollie Ringgold. The note on page 5 of the book explains that distinction. Lucy's record stays in Arkansas. Mollie's story takes her all the way to Greenwood.